Advantages

Disadvantages

Happy to have

I had been searching for a while to try and get my hands on this particular Swatch as I really loved the design on it so I was rather excited when I tracked it down on ebay a while back and although I had to part with £44 (the rrp is normally £30 but tracking one down at that price is an issue) I was very happy to finally get my hands on a brand new one as previously I had only come across used ones on the site.

This is a battery operated watch made from plastic with a textile / leather band and it has a wonderfully simple and attractive design to it. It has proven to be a reliable time piece (then again all Swatches generally are and I should know as I collect them) and after 13 months of ownership the battery is still going strong.

So to the actual design, the band is a little different in that it is a leather strap covered in a textile material, it is white in colour with a Japanese style pattern on it rather like the water colour of what I would describe as a blossom tree, the branches grow along the strap and have patches of pink blossom on them. The pattern continues partially onto the watch face with a solitary branch and blossom reaching up into the lower left side of the watch face near the 7,8 numbers and on up to the 11.

The rest of the watch face is white with black minute and hour hands and simple marks where the numb would normally be. It is a very cool and simple design that is quite striking when worn on your wrist and it has an autumnal feel to it.

The only slight problem I have found with this watch is that there has been a slight fraying on the strap which can make it look a little tatty, this has meant that I have been rather sparing with the number of times that I have worn it as the problem emerged only after about a dozen uses of the watch which is rather disappointing and not a problem I have come acoss before with similar strap designs from Swatch.

Overall though this is a reliable time piece which has some lovely design features and one that I'm glad I managed to track down.